You become what you feed your mind ” ,isn’t it what they say ?
Today we are seeing a generation who is raised with gadgets in their hands ,a flood of information and activities ,so much so that many have fat glasses sitting on their tiny noses ,and if there’s not one ,they have a fog around their mind , lacking desire to go outside in the nature, play with the toys or run around foolishly. Yes ! Still they do some of those things, but it’s becoming rather rare .Video games have taken over ,occupying the little ones enough to bother themselves about finding outdoor games ,some are infact addicted to these games .
They’ll make sure that once they get their hands on their parents phones ,they’re not returning them back for hours , infact parenting has become an ordeal , more than before. Came across a rant by a desolate mother on Twitter “My son is refusing to speak to me for the rest of the year as I won’t let him play adult console games… He’s 12 and he wants to play GTA and Call of Duty because all his friends are doing it… Am I being too strict here?” ….
The responses were pretty interesting, with more grownups and parents sharing and adding ideas , one that got my attention was this comment “Tough call – they love it – but it’s like crack . They will play till midnight and beyond – fall asleep in lessons .If you have to ,then limit the time it can be played at and the number of hours”… Ofcourse these video games are nonetheless addictive, there are news sources about gamers confining themselves to their chairs ,without moving for a minute, no food and water and vists to the loo and eventually ending up in severely miserable state. They even have a term for this addiction ” game binge” .
Moreover, Gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the wise ones says “Excess of everything is bad” although these video games have both pros and cons, but one must keep a tight grip on their self control, especially for children, it can cause immense damages to their physical and mental health. Back to the idea of what we are feeding our brains? Too much action, fiction and violence, lacking control on ourselves and drifting away from reality. We better instill discipline in ourselves and our children for such sports or it’s a dangerous binge for mind and body .
by Khuş Editor-at-large WEDA